The House of Scorpions - Nancy Farmer Book Review

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Review Summaries

" Matteo (Matt) Alacran is a clone of El Patron, lord of a strip of land called Opium. He is disliked by everyone living on the estate, which is made of El Patron's "power-hungry" family. El Patron is the only ones who care for Matt at first, but eventually he befriends a girl named Maria. After growing up with his motherly caretaker in a cabin far from the main mansion, Matt one day discovered the mansion, and a mean maid kept him there in a room filled with sawdust and chicken litter for months. When El Patron found out, Matt was released and was better taken care of. As he grew up, he was distinguished as "the clone" among almost everyone on the estate, but fortunately, he was assigned a bodyguard named Tam Lin who was very good to him and helped him survive the horrible life he had. But when El Patron needs a transplant from Matt (which would kill him), Matt runs away. In Matt's travels, there was a lot of suspense. First, Matt had to live with a group of boys under the command of exploiting leaders. This was because he was on the way to see Maria at her convent and to get a plane there, he was told he just had to live with these people for a while. Unfortunately, he was deceived and had to do physical work for months. When he tried to run away from that with a friend he made, they were found and were pushed into a boneyard, which was almost impossible to get out of. When they did come out, they were terribly bruised and still had infections from some of the work they had to do earlier. "
Roxanne, Resident Nancy Farmer Scholar

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Overall Review

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 20%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 30%

Tone of book - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - fantasy world/fantasy past
Coming of age Yes
Youngster becomes - ruler
Story involving clones/duplicates? - good clones/duplicates
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Clones Yes
Cultural problems, alien culture Yes

Main Character
Identity: - clone
Profession/status: - unemployed
Age: - a teen
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters

Main Adversary
Identity: - none
Age: - 60's-90's
Profession/status: - politician/elected ruler
Eccentric: Yes
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters

Setting
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
scientific jargon? (SF only) - none/very little science jargon needed
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

Most similar books by Gordonator ranking
Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit by Storm Constantine
Lord of Snow and Shadows by Sarah Ash
Heritage and Exile by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Ring by Deborah Chester
The Light of Eidon by Karen Hancock

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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